Putting this old wallpaper on here made me open the folder full of these old but still lovely wallpapers. These are all mostly made with photographs that I have taken or fractals I generated and multiple layers in photoshop.

The caption is the name of the wallpaper and also the foundation of what made it.

I recently bought 10 different types of flowers and pots to plant them in so I could add some colour to my backyard. After planting I was very upset at how crappy the flower tags were. I will not show the originals because they were that bad. They were all red, had a crazy huge logo and the text for each flower was small, upper case and white on red. These tags were more about the company who grew them than about the individual flowers. I had to change this – design tags that were all about the flowers and not me.

As a graphic designer and photographer I started with photographing my new flowers. After getting the photographs off my camera I had to select all the best photographs, about 10 minutes. I spent about 15 minutes getting a rough template together that has the shape, clipping mask all ready to go and the text in place. Using the ‘template’ and the selected photographs, typing in the name, changing colours etc took about 20 minutes for all the tags. So basically I made 10 flower tags in about 45 minutes. Below is 8 of the 10 tags:

New flower tag design (on black to make the colours pop)

Once I printed them all I cut them out and laminated them and then cut them out (again). Below are the flower tags as they are displayed in the pots:

photographs of the flower tags on display

I have already had some friends and family mistake these flower tags for being the tags that came with the flowers since they are so well designed and professional looking. I smile because this is what I do.

I made these for the State Zionist Council of Queensland in 2007. I was asked to take two images and convert them into an image that looked like a badge. I was given the images and a tutorial and started to create them. Here is the original and remake of both images:

badge 1

badge 2

While I was making these badges I realised that the images would need to be edited before being made into the badge. The image itself is just a layer in the overall design and in order for them to look good in a circle they did need to be changed. The first badge is clearly rearranged so the words “Isreal 60” were large enough to read – if the whole image was scaled it became hard to read the words. The person and Star of David were also repositioned in relation to the words. Overall the design is easier to read and see especially on the circle badge.

The second image was reflected horizontally and vertically in order to make the Star of David easier to see, have the flag look more like a flag in this context and to create an overall more balanced image inside the circle badge.

After being inspired by the first 2009 semi-permanent book that DesignIsKinky released I have submitted five artworks to hopefully get included. The following quote is the email I sent them.

“Hello
I really loved the first 2009 book and it inspired me to want to be included in a next book, hence here now is my submission. Attached is my 5 submissions for the second 2009 book, all to specified sizes. Three files are saved as 72ppi jpg. The gif file shows a stroked line which is the bounding box the rest is there as a 5mm bleed. I feel as though I must mention the last file: it is just a jpg but the actual design has been printed A1, mounted and exhibited at the University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery in June-July 2009 (student exhibit) and will also be exhibited in a different show in Gympie in October.

This is me having a go at air brushing to the extreme but keeping in touch with reality. I have added nail polish, eye shadow and lipstick. This contains an skin texture brush from keepwaiting.

#2

a photograph with a caption saying its unedited

This is a photograph of a flower that has been composed so that the pollen is on the top left hand rule of third intersection. The image is unedited except the text stating it is Fig 1 and that it is unedited. The camera lens is literally inside the flower.

#3

"Proliferation of Digital Typeface in the Urban Environment"

This is my final A1 poster for ADN214: Visual Identity and Exhibition Design. There is more information about it at this page: Urban Typography by Kassandra Bowers. This is the submission mentioned earlier as being exhibited in an art gallery.

#4

FINAL: something for semi permanent

This is something that I created especially for the book (the other things are all adapted from somewhere else). The stuff outside of the stroked line is the bleed. The fun thing about keeping a blog is seeing things connect as: something for semi-permanent has already been changed since its original blog entry.

#5

commercialism's younger brother: development (ISM back cover)

This was the back cover for the ISM (Independent Student Magazine from the University of the Sunshine Coast) I worked on page layout and graphic design for the COMMERCIALISM issue. This was the back cover that I made from photographs I took in 2005. I was surprised after I got back to the Sunshine Coast after being in Darwin for 13 months to find that these patches of grass are now covered in concrete and structures. This has been edited since the original back cover. I sadly didn’t pick up on a typo and 10 000 copies were sent out with the 2005 saying 2008 (which didn’t make sense and was picked up on by a few of my university friends).

I decided to use “the generator” to make three different entries into the competition. When scrolling through I realised that there was actually text for the city Brisbane so I could not resist but put it on one of the advertisements. The category for the final round is “simply city” so the following three designs were my competition entries.

Hugo Boss entry 1: urban planet

Using the bottle only on a gradient background and the tag line urban planet: simple and city.

Hugo Boss entry 2: Urban planet Brisbane

Black and white only with hustle and bustle of the streets of “Brisbane” complete with the name Brisbane, the confusing map of streets (similar to Brisbane) in the shape of the bottle a requirement and the tag line “urban planet” to anchor the visual message with text.

Hugo Boss entry 3: urban thrills live it up

A very different approach indeed. The background is created from a very enlarged surfboard and the rest of the elements: city, man, bottle, text and flags are all minimal colour scribbled elements which ties all in visually. There is a very vivid and lively colour palette which ties in the text: live it up.

These designs have all been put up on the site and the disclaimer did state that not all were going to be put up on the site. Maybe the three links will work but they may not correspond to the order on this page.

I finally installed many many free for non commercial use photoshop brushes that I have been downloading over time. All the following files were made from these brushes and were originally only made as wall papers and so are 1280 x 800 to accommodate my wide-screen resolution and they are 72 ppi as they are screen based art.

green and black layers of just brushes

I am choosing to only sign and upload the best created in the 5 hours I spent after creating this blog. For this particular wall paper I was thinking of my friend Sharri who I would imagine would like this lots. There is just so many layers of green and black one can’t help but be sucked into this piece.

no photos

This one uses Polaroid brushes that are intentionally left empty to show there are no photos. This is to appear as a worn out scrapbook with mud and crumpled paper. The labels says there is photos but there areclearly no photos.

"Blood" inspired by Dexter (TV Series)

Photoshop brushes once again. This is inspired by Dexter and also from Sweeny Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street movie. There is a visible hand and the blood drips from the top of the screen. The minimal colour palette of red on black makes the blood more impacting on the viewer. I remember making sure no brush was used no more than twice maximum for more realism.

expressionist painting (not pollock inspired)

Another painted with photoshop brushes but this time they are mimicking real paint brushes. I have used vivid primary painting colours for a change. This is not inspired by Jackson Pollock despite top right corner. This has been my current wall paper for a few weeks now. It is very expressive.

"Moon on water" a photographically surreal image

This is a photograhically surreal image created using just photoshop brushes (again). This is almost believable as a real scene except the huge moon which adds to the surreal of the pretend photograph.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

airbrushing photo with new skin texture brush

Airbrushing photo with new skin texture brush. The way that this brush works is great – it makes the skin still have slight texture even though the face is completely covered in this example and then some highlights and shadows were added using darker and lighter brushes.

REFERENCES:

Not every brush that I have downloaded includes a name to reference and less had urls written in read me files inside the downloadable zip file. If your brush is used in any of these email me and I will reference you here.